Zoe Disigny - The Art of Travelling Strangers

Zoe Disigny - The Art of Travelling Strangers

2⭐

Genre:  Fiction, Travelling, Historical Fiction

Pages: 288

Format: Netgalley/ Ebook

Publisher:  Subplot Publishing 

Date Published: 22nd February 2022

 

Book Blurb: 

It’s the 1980s, and art historian Claire Markham reels from a series of heartbreaking losses. Desperate to escape her shattered reality, she becomes an art guide in Europe for quirky stranger Viv Chancey and embarks on a life-changing journey through the art-filled cities of Milan, Venice, Ravenna, Florence, Siena, Rome, and Paris.

Once abroad, Claire tries to hide her woes by focusing on Viv’s art education, but Viv—who is not who she seems—has a different learning experience in mind. Frustrated and wanting to reimagine her life, Claire embraces the idea of reality as illusion and finds herself slipping into the tales of art and history.

When threatened with one more crushing loss, Claire must learn from the spirit of her eccentric companion and the lessons from the art they encounter to take charge of her life or lose the most precious thing in it. 

My Review: 

I loved the blurb of this book, as it included many things that I love, travelling, Italy, culture, fashion and art…Yet, this book was a real disappointment. The only good thing about this book was that it was a quick read and took me only a few days to consume.

The story follows Claire who is in the middle of divorce and is also lost, since her summer job to be an art guide is cancelled. However, when a rich lady Viv approaches Claire and asks her to be Viv’s art guide across Italy. Once abroad Claire tries to concentrate only on educating Viv, however, all the art makes Claire slowly reimagine and look differently at her life, whilst also getting to know Viv and realising that both aren’t so different after all.

Firstly, I didn’t like Claire. She was so insufferable and naïve throughout this book. Also, she didn’t grow much throughout the book, but suddenly in the last 20 pages went through an epiphany on how to solve all her life problems. It just wasn’t really believable. Secondly, we learn everything about Claire during the first five chapters of this book in a very boring and dry manner, which is then followed by her exploring art and comparing it with her own life…Thirdly, the ending is so rushed and anticlimactic, making me question the purpose of this book.

I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters, as they were so two-dimensional with no growth until the last 20 pages. I at least had high hopes for the art and fashion descriptions as Claire and Viv are travelling through Italy. Yet, I was wrong there too. All of the descriptions were so dry and lecture-like that I wanted just to skip it all.

Overall: A book that was supposed to be about travelling, art, fashion, Italy, as well as relationships and their complexities. However, it didn’t do any complex dive into relationships or main characters. It just compared those with art on a very surface level. It was also so hard to understand the purpose of this book as it seemed like it wanted to be all but just fell flat. One of the most disappointing books I have read in a while, although I had so much hope.

This review was first published on Netgalley: 

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/244856/review/959200

 

About the Author:

Zoe Disigny holds a master’s degree in art history and taught college courses for thirty years. She also worked as an art gallery director, a lecturer for The Norton Simon Museum of Art, and a lecturer for Road Scholar—an educational travel organization for adults. Zoe has led numerous art tours in Europe and established a business in Paris offering art history adventures for American tourists. Ms. Disigny has published articles in Art in Fiction, The Potato Soup Literary Journal, and The California Writers Club Literary Review. Her debut novel, The Art of Traveling Strangers , was released February 22nd, 2022, and was the #1 New Release in European Art History on Amazon! In 2023, The Art of Traveling Strangers was honored as a finalist in the New Generation Indie Book Awards.

https://zoedisigny.com/

Sarra Manning - London, With Love

Sarra Manning - London, With Love  

3 ⭐

Genre: Romance, Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Chick Lit, Contemporary 

Pages: 432

Format: Netgalley / Ebook

Publisher:  Hodder & Stoughton 

Date Published: 5th May 2022

 

Book Blurb: 

London. Nine million people. Two hundred and seventy tube stations. Every day, thousands of chance encounters, first dates, goodbyes and happy ever afters.

And for twenty years it's been where one man and one woman can never get their timing right.

Jennifer and Nick meet as teenagers and over the next two decades, they fall in and out of love with each other. Sometimes they start kissing. Sometimes they're just friends. Sometimes they stop speaking, but they always find their way back to each other.

But after all this time, are they destined to be together or have they finally reached the end of the line?

My Review: 

I thought this book is going to be similar to Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern, which is one of my favourite books ever, so I had high hopes for London, With Love. However, apart from beautiful writing this book was too long, and I didn’t really believe the love and chemistry between the two main characters. Also, the miscommunication trope in this book just made me so angry. Both of the main characters were just so childish and too stubborn to admit their feelings. Also, some of the events in this book were quite triggering and happened without any warning…yet felt that including those events wasn’t necessary to make this book good.

The story follows Jen and Nick, who became best friends in college when both were 16 and see them fall in and out of each other’s lives over the course of the next 35 years. The book also uses the London tube as a backdrop to all the important events and meetings that happen in both Nick’s and Jen’s life.

I didn’t like Jen’s character that much. For me, it felt like she didn’t grow up and her character development was non-existent until the last 10% of the book. Also, for someone with two degrees and being quite well educated she lacked common sense and was very naïve, which was just very unbelievable. Nick, for me, was quite a mystery, as we get to know him only from Jen’s POV. I didn’t feel much romance and feelings between the two of them in this book, it felt more like a childhood crush for me.

What I liked in this book is the beautiful writing and scene setting, as well as the beautiful descriptions of London. The author perfectly explores how London changed from 1986 to 2021.

Overall: I had such high hopes for this book but was quite disappointed with a very mediocre romance that didn’t feel that realistic. I couldn’t connect with the main characters or believe their feelings towards each other. The book itself also felt a bit too long, and the inclusion of three major events without a trigger warning nearly made me DNF this book. Writing and exploration of London was beautiful though. 

This review was first published on Netgalley: 

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/247768/review/959200

About the Author:

Sarra Manning is a teen queen extraordinaire. She spent five years working on the now sadly defunct J17, first as a writer and then as Entertainment Editor. She then joined the launch team of teen fashion bible Ellegirl, which she later went on to edit and has consulted on a wide range of youth titles including Bliss, The Face and More.

Sarra is now editor of What To Wear magazine. She's also been a regular contributor to ELLE, The Guardian, ES Magazine, Seventeen, Details and Heat and wrote the Shop Bitch column for Time Out. Sarra lives in North London with her dog Miss Betsy.

http://www.sarramanning.co.uk/

Minoli Salgado - Twelve Cries From Home: In Search of Sri Lanka's Disappeared

Minoli Salgado - Twelve Cries From Home: In Search of Sri Lanka's Disappeared

4 ⭐

Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoirs, True Stories

Pages: 250

Format: Digital (Netgalley)

Publisher: Repeater Books

Date Published: 8th February 2022

Thank you to NetGalley and Repeater Books for e-arc of this book to read and review.

Book Blurb: 

Twelve Cries from Home speaks out against Sri Lanka's official silencing of war crimes, reclaiming the stories of survivors who insist on being heard.

Since August 2020, the intimidation of witnesses and journalists has surged in Sri Lanka. Twelve Cries from Home navigates the memories and stories of twelve war survivors, mostly women and relatives of the disappeared, who wished to have their stories retold so that a permanent record might be made, and so that those outside the country might understand their experiences.

The outcome of a journey across the island in late 2018 by writer and Professor of Literature Minoli Salgado, who was revisiting her ancestral home, Twelve Cries from Home is deeply-layered and localised work of travelling witness. It returns to the concept of home as a place of belonging and security, which is a lost ideal for most, and uses a Sri Lankan measure of distance - the call, or hoowa - to ask how we might attend to stories that are difficult to tell and to hear.

Exploring the bitter complexity of war by presenting stories from four regions of Sri Lanka, it reveals the complex network of relationships between the agents of conflict and their victims, as well as the blurred boundary between victims and perpetrators, the role of informers and the process of ethical repair after traumatic experience.

Twelve Cries from Home offers a rare glimpse into a country subject to enforced self-censorship, allowing us to take stock of social and political developments in Sri Lanka and what has and has not been achieved in light of the transitional justice mechanisms promised to the UN.

My Review: 

This book took me quite a long time to read, mainly because I had to take breaks every so often as the topics discussed in this book are at points very hard to read. This book is the account of different people, who all lived and lost loved ones through the Sri Lankan war. The author interviews them all around the island of Colombo and each interview is filled with pain, harsh realities, losses, and heartbreaks, but also hope for a better future and love.

This book is a very important read and I am glad I read it. I also learned so much about Sri Lanka and the war that raged there for decades. Before reading this book, I wasn’t familiar with it as much, but reading this book made me look into the war and Sri Lankan history more and to educate myself. It is a hard book to read, but at the same time it is powerful and it gave a voice to people who otherwise not be heard.

Overall: It is a hard read, full of pain, and suffering, but also hope and love. It’s people’s accounts of how their lost their loved ones and family members, as well as how they suffered themselves during war years. I think it is a very important read, albeit not a light one. I am glad I picked up this book and educated myself more about Sri Lanka and its history, as well as the recent war, through the accounts of those who lived through it. 

This review was first published on NetGalley: https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/247157/review/959200

About the Author: 

Minoli Salgado is a Sri Lankan writer and academic based in the United Kingdom who was born in Malaysia and educated mainly in England. She has written extensively on migrant studies and diasporic literature and is the author of the critically acclaimed work Writing Sri Lanka. She also writes fiction and poetry, and her debut novel A Little Dust on the Eyes won the inaugural SI Leeds Literary Prize.

https://minolisalgado.com/about/

Bill Gates - How To Avoid A Climate Disaster

Bill Gates - How To Avoid A Climate Disaster 

4⭐

Genre: Environmental Studies, Non-Fiction, Geography, Climate Change, Academia, Education

Pages: 272

Format: Paperback 

Publisher: Penguin Press UK, Allen Lane Books

Date Published: 16th February 2021

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Press UK for an e-copy to read and review. 

Book Blurb: 

Bill Gates shares what he's learned in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address the problems, and sets out a vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Bill Gates explains why he cares so deeply about climate change and what makes him optimistic that the world can prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Gates says, "we can work on a local, national, and global level to build the technologies, businesses, and industries to avoid the worst impacts of climate change." His interest in climate change is a natural outgrowth of the efforts by his foundation to reduce poverty and disease. Climate change, according to Gates, will have the biggest impact on the people who have done the least to cause it. As a technologist, he has seen first-hand how innovation can change the world. By investing in research, inventing new technologies, and deploying them quickly at large scale, Gates believes climate change can be addressed in meaningful ways. According to Gates, "to prevent the worst effects of climate change, we have to get to net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases. This problem is urgent, and the debate is complex, but I believe we can come together to invent new carbon-zero technologies, deploy the ones we have, and ultimately avoid a climate catastrophe."

My Review: 

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster reads very quickly and well, as well as covers a lot of basics of Climate Change, greenhouse gases, causes of greenhouse gases/ Climate Change, production and consumption, so it is a great book if you are a newbie and don’t know much about ins and outs of Climate Change, but want to learn more or just want a quick yet reliable summary.

The book is basically divided into two parts. The first part is all about setting the scene and explaining what is Climate Change, why it is a problem, how this all came about and summarising all the facts and figures about the problem we as a society currently face. The second part is all about solutions to Climate Change, including innovations, changes in policies, governments' attitudes, as well as binding agreements between the countries. Gates in the second part of the book doesn’t shy away from portraying future possibilities if we don’t do anything about Climate Change, but he also discusses and displays what changes need to be made in different parts of our economies, industries and societies to achieve zero carbon and to reduce Climate Change impacts on communities and humans significantly. 

This book was very interesting and covered quite a lot of solutions to fight climate change that isn’t usually covered by mainstream media and news. Also, Gates talks about different start-up companies, highlighting their innovations in tackling climate change, which gives a glimpse of hope that not everything is lost and we can make changes needed to restore our environment. He also makes a strong point that we need to move towards cleaner energy as soon as possible, but in order to do that we need to invest more in those industries and change our opinions on low-carbon and renewable energy into more positive ones.

Unlike in many other Climate Change books, Gates only slightly touches on individual action regarding Climate Change issues. He mainly concentrates on what different industries and governments can do to reduce their reliance on fossils, reduce consumption, change materials into more sustainable ones, etc. I really enjoyed this take on Climate Change, as there aren’t a lot of books that look at the issues regarding Climate Change from this particular viewpoint.

I also liked that Gates displayed how much Climate Change is affecting and will affect more of our everyday life and how it, directly and indirectly, links to nearly every challenge societies across the world currently face.

Overall: Verry well written, easily understood, with complex processes explained in great depth and ease. The perfect book for someone who wants to learn more about Climate Change, but doesn’t know where to start, as this book summarises everything you need to know about it in one place and without complex scientific language, which is at times hard to grasp. Additionally, relevant and simple graphs, pictures and diagrams allow information to be better digested, especially as the complex numbers and graphs that are usually associated with production and consumption are very well explained to the reader. This book also offers a glimpse of hope by diving into new innovations and technologies in tackling different issues that are arising due to Climate Change. 

I honestly didn’t think I will enjoy this book as much as I did!

This review was first published on NetGalley: 

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/208120/review/959200

About the Author:

Bill Gates is a technologist, business leader, and philanthropist. In 1975, he co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen; today he and his wife, Melinda, are co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He also launched Breakthrough Energy, an effort to commercialize clean energy and other climate-related technologies. He and Melinda have three children and live in Medina, Washington.

https://www.gatesnotes.com/

Isabel Kaplan - Not Safe For Work

Isabel Kaplan - Not Safe For Work 

3 ⭐

Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Feminism, Literary Fiction  

Pages:  262

Format: eARC on NetGalley  

Publisher: Penguin Michael Joseph   

Date Published: 4th August 2022

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph for giving me a chance to read and review this book on NetGalley. 

Book Blurb: 

You are young, ambitious, college-educated and a feminist. Your new job is in television.

To climb the ranks, you do whatever it takes:
- Pull all-nighters
- Lean on your powerful mother's contacts
- Stay in shape at cult-like fitness classes
- Secretly wear your boss's Fitbit to improve his stepcount - and his temper

You know the rules of this world. When someone senior tells you how pretty you look, you smile and thank him - and make a mental note never to wear that dress alone with him again.

When whispers start to circle that your office might have 'a bit of a rape problem,' and your close friend confesses her own unsettling encounter, you know there is plenty to gain from staying silent, and all too much to lose through speaking out.

And of course, you know your own boss is one of the good guys . . . don't you?

With blisteringly sharp prose and a darkly humorous voice, Not Safe For Work is an unflinching exploration of the grey area between empowerment and complicity, and a searing, unforgettable portrait of what success costs in a patriarchal world.

My Review: 

I was so looking forward to reading this book as the blurb of it was so captivating and interesting. However, it didn’t live up to my expectations. It was an interesting read about very important topics and some realities of a still very patriarchal society. However, I felt that this book was missing the connection with the main protagonist since she was unnamed, therefore it was hard to relate to her or get to know her as a character. Additionally, the rest of the characters were not explored in depth and their personalities were only displayed from the viewpoint of the main protagonist.

This story is about an unnamed protagonist and her search for a job in Hollywood, especially her struggles to move up in the company and show that she is just as worthy as her male co-workers. The story also explored the protagonist sometimes rather a toxic relationship with her mother and barely existing relationships with her brother and father. Additionally, topics of eating disorders, weight and self-abuse were also discussed, especially how females in Hollywood try to look as good as possible with the help of diets, starvation, gym, medication and of course Botox, makeup, etc, in hope that it will help them to impress their bosses and move up in their jobs.

I think the topics discussed in this book are very important, especially sexism, privilege and still very much male domination in society, as well as toxic parenting and mental health issues. I loved reading all about that, but the book really dragged until about the last 20%. Some of the dialogue and scenes were not adding anything to the plot and sometimes the main protagonist just seemed whinny and childish when dealing with simple tasks and conversations.

The ending left me very surprised. I expected something more and it just flopped flatly…just abruptly stopped. Thus, the story just felt unfinished to me. I even checked a few times if my file wasn’t corrupted and it is the actual ending.

Overall: This book explores so many important topics, such as sexism, toxic relationships, abuse, mental health and eating disorders, but it fell flat with the execution. This storyline and plot had so much potential that was not executed well and the story itself just felt a bit weak, especially in comparison to the other books that explore similar themes as NSFW. At times it felt that the toxic relationship storyline between the protagonist and her mother took the front seat, whereas the main storyline about sexism, male power and abuse took a backseat. Most of the time, however, I just couldn’t connect with the main protagonist and her story. 

The review was first published on NetGalley: 

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/251858/review/959200

About the Author:

Isabel Kaplan graduated from Harvard and holds an MFA in creative writing from NYU. She is the author of the novel NSFW and the national bestselling young adult novel Hancock Park and was born and raised in Los Angeles.

https://www.isabelkaplan.com/about

Mike Gayle - The Museum of Ordinary People

Mike Gayle - The Museum of Ordinary People 

5 ⭐

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Fiction 

Pages: 352

Format: eARC on NetGalley 

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton 

Date Published: 7th July 2022 

Big Thank You to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley UK for a copy of eARC to read and review! 

Book Blurb: 

Still reeling from the sudden death of her mother, Jess is about to do the hardest thing she's ever done: empty her childhood home so that it can be sold.

But when in the process Jess stumbles across the mysterious Alex, together they become custodians of a strange archive of letters, photographs, curios and collections known as The Museum of Ordinary People.

As they begin to delve into the history of the objects in their care, Alex and Jess not only unravel heartbreaking stories that span generations and continents but also unearth long-buried secrets that lie much closer to home.

Inspired by a box of mementos found abandoned in a skip following a house clearance, The Museum of Ordinary People is a thought-provoking and poignant story of memory, grief, loss and the things we leave behind.

My Review: 

I just love Mike Gayle’s writing. Been reading his books for years and he did it again! I was instantly hooked by The Museum of Ordinary People! It is so beautifully written, with well-developed and lovable characters, and with a plot that just plays with all of your heartstrings and feelings.

The story follows Jess, who is dealing with the sudden loss of her mother, whom she was really close to and loves unconditionally. On top of dealing with a spectrum of feelings including grief, she also has to deal with the practicalities, such as trying to sell mum’s house, finding a new home for mum’s belongings and of course saying goodbye to her childhood home.

Whilst trying to rehome some of her mother’s belongings she comes across a Museum of Ordinary People owned by mysterious Alex. This museum is not a very well-known space in London, where people bring very ordinary objects that they can’t bear to throw away because those belongings mean the world to them but they don’t have anywhere to store these possessions. Jess always had a dream to work in a museum, so she takes a step to fulfil this dream by curating and making The Museum of Ordinary People known to a wider public so they can appreciate its beauty, whilst trying to juggle her current job, relationship, friendships and the loss of a loved one.

I really liked that this book explores ordinary experiences and feelings of loss and grief. Jess’s feelings are so raw and so real, as well as her memories of her mother, whilst Jess goes about her everyday life, are so relatable if you lose a loved one. Also, loved how Gayle portrays how different people deal with loss. For example, how Alex is dealing with his loss after a long time has passed in comparison to Jess, whose loss is still fresh. It is really nice to see this being explored.

In terms of characters, I adored Alex's character, as even though he had a fair share of losses in life and his own demons to overcome, he is such a kind, loving and caring person. The way he helps Jess, supports her all the way through with the museum and believes in her every step of the way was so kind and adorable to read. I also loved the respect and love that both of them shared with each other.

Each character was unique in their own way and very well developed, each adding something special to the story. I love the progression and development of Jess, Alex, Guy and even some of the second plan characters throughout this book. It made the story very captivating, uplifting and most of all, real.

Also, this book is not only about dealing with loss and grief. This story also explores themes of not giving up on your dreams, not giving up on your passion, believing in yourself and others, as well as not settling for second best and listening to your gut and heart. I think the main theme is actually finding a purpose in life again when you think your world is crumbling after you lose your loved one.

Overall: Mike Gayle’s books are just masterpieces of exploring human feelings and emotions, and The Museum of Ordinary People is not an exception. Beautifully written, captivating and uplifting story, lovable characters and exploration of such important themes of belonging, loss, grief, dreams and memories of loved ones. Absolutely adored this book and if I could I would give it 1000 stars to it. I could re-read this book over and over again and still find new things and feel all the emotions. A MUST HAVE book on everyone’s bookshelf! 

This review was first published on NetGalley and can be found on:

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/250612/review/959200

About the Author: 

Mike Gayle was born and raised in Birmingham. After graduating from Salford University with a degree in Sociology Mike moved to London with ambitions of becoming a music journalist. This didn't happen however and following a slight detour in his five-year plan he ended up as an agony uncle for teenage girls' magazine Bliss before becoming Features Editor on the now much missed Just Seventeen. Since those early days Mike has written for a variety of publications including The Sunday Times, The Guardian and Cosmopolitan.

Mike became a full time novelist in 1997 following the publication of his Sunday Times top ten bestseller My Legendary Girlfriend, which was hailed by The Independent as 'Full of belly laughs and painfully acute observations,' and by The Times as 'A funny, frank account of a hopeless romantic.'

To date Mike is the author of twelve novels including Mr Commitment, Turning Thirty and Wish You Were Here. His books have been translated into over thirty languages.

http://www.mikegayle.co.uk/

Julia May Jonas - Vladimir

Julia May Jonas - Vladimir 

4 ⭐

Genre:  General Fiction, Literary Fiction, Character Exploration, Fiction 

Pages: 256 

Format: eARC on NetGalley 

Publisher: Pan Macmillan, Picador

Date Published: 26th May 2022 (UK) 

Big Thank You to Picador and NetGalley UK for a copy of eARC to read and review! 

Book Blurb: 

A provocative, razor-sharp, and timely debut novel about a beloved English professor facing a slew of accusations against her professor husband by former students – a situation that becomes more complicated when she herself develops an obsession of her own . . .

When I was a child, I loved old men, and I could tell that they also loved me.

And so we meet our deliciously incisive narrator: a popular English professor whose husband, a charismatic professor at the same small liberal arts college, is under investigation for his inappropriate relationships with his former students. The couple have long had a mutual understanding when it comes to their extramarital pursuits, but with these new allegations, life has become far less comfortable for them both. And when our narrator becomes increasingly infatuated with Vladimir, a celebrated, married young novelist who’s just arrived on campus, their tinder-box world comes dangerously close to exploding.

With her bold, edgy, and uncommonly assured literary debut, Julia May Jonas takes us into charged territory, where the strictures of morality bump up against the impulses of the human heart. Propulsive, darkly funny, and surreptitiously moving, Vladimir maps the personal and political minefield of our current moment, exposing the messy contradictions of power and desire.

My Review: 

This book caught my eye because it features academia and I love reading fictional books where academia is given a centre stage. It was a very interesting read. However, it wasn’t my favourite since I wanted more action than this book provided.

Book follows an unnamed narrator, who is in her 50s and is a Literature professor at a small university on the outskirts of NYC. Her husband, who is also a professor at the same university, is under investigation for sexual relationships with his former students. At the same time, a young, good looking and popular professor/published writer Vladimir joins the department with his wife Cynthia, and our unnamed narrator starts ‘obsessing’ with him. The story deeply explores the narrator’s character, her struggles with writing a new book, her age, her emotions, her weight and of course her role as a female in society and academia. She starts comparing herself to Cynthia and tries to find ways to impress Vladimir with her wisdom and knowledge of literature.

The story itself is quite slow, there’s not much action till the very end actually and even then, the ending was a bit disappointing as there weren’t any big reveals or shocks about any of the characters. However, the lack of action was substituted with beautiful and flawless writing. Jonas is so talented in that regard, the way she describes scenes, and events and gives deep to the characters is fabulous. I think the main reason I continued with this book was the writing as it grips you from the very first page and before you know it you are 100 pages in.

Another thing that I noticed was that in the blurb it sounded like the narrator is obsessed with Vladimir and honestly, I expected that given the title of the book. However, throughout the book it didn’t feel like she was obsessed with him at all, it was more like she liked the thought of him and she had this perfect version created in her head of him. This leads me to my other point about Vladimir…we don’t really get to know him as a character. He was mainly portrayed to the reader as to how our narrator saw him. There was a little glimpse of him at the very end of the book when he is alone with the narrator and talks about himself, but overall, the book doesn’t explore his character deep enough in my opinion.

I really liked that this book explored power relationships in academia and gender roles, both quite controversial topics in the past and in the current environment. It was so interesting to see what the narrator thought about her husband’s relationships with female students.

Overall: I think I had a bit too high hopes for this book. I really wanted it to be more like Nabokov’s Lolita, as well as to have more action and more twists and shocks in terms of all characters but mainly Vladimir and the narrator’s husband. Although I didn’t like the lack of action in this book, I liked the writing of this book, it was truly flawless and there are so many exceptional quotes in this book that will definitely stay with me for a while.

I do recommend this book to anyone who likes books that explore characters in depth and who don’t mind the lack of actions and twists in their reading.

This review was first published on NetGalley and can be found on:

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/246703/review/959200

About the Author: 

Julia May Jonas is an experimental playwright and playwriting professor at Skidmore College. She holds an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University. Vladimir is her debut novel. 

https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/julia-may-jonas

Erin Litteken - The Memory Keeper of Kyiv

 

Erin Litteken - The Memory Keeper of Kyiv 

5 ⭐

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Culture, Fiction. 

Pages: 373

Format: eARC on NetGalley 

Publisher: Boldwood Books

Date Published: 16th May 2022

Can't thank enough Boldwood Books and NetGalley UK for a copy of eARC to read and review!

Book Blurb: 

In the 1930s, Stalin’s activists marched through the Soviet Union, espousing the greatness of collective farming. It was the first step in creating a man-made famine that, in Ukraine, stole almost 4 million lives. Inspired by the history the world forgot, and the Russian government denies it, Erin Litteken reimagines their story.

In 1929, Katya is 16 years old, surrounded by family and in love with the boy next door. When Stalin’s activists arrive in her village, it’s just a few, a little pressure to join the collective. But soon neighbours disappear, those who speak out are never seen again and every new day is uncertain.

Resistance has a price, and as desperate hunger grips the countryside, survival seems more a dream than a possibility. But, even in the darkest times, love beckons.

Seventy years later, a young widow discovers her grandmother’s journal, one that will reveal the long-buried secrets of her family’s haunted past.

This is a story of the resilience of the human spirit, the love that sees us through our darkest hours and the true horror of what happened during the Holodomor.

My Review: 

What a powerful book! I love historical fiction and I loved reading this beautiful book, although it made me cry like no other book ever did. The book is even more impactful and important in the light of current events in Ukraine and Russia’s brutality towards Ukrainian citizens.

The book follows two timelines, one set in the 1930s and one in 2004. In the 1930s story follows Katya, a young Ukrainian girl living in the Ukrainian countryside, who is so full of life, dreams, and love, and is surrounded by her loving family, her sister Alina and her parents. She is also in love with a neighbour’s boy who she wants to one day marry and have a big family with. All her dreams are shattered when in the early 1930s Stalin decides to collectivise all the rural farms across the countryside where Katya and her family reside. People who were opposed to this faced deportation to Gulags in Siberia, prison or death. Farmers and families that were left in the countryside faced starvation, as brutal grain and food quotas and taxes are introduced. Whilst most of the food were rotting away in train station wagons thousands of people were starving and dying, including Katya and her family. She is not only forced to eat whatever she found in the forests, including mice, worms, and rats but she also losses some of her loved ones. The 2004 timeline follows Cassie who after losing her husband, moves to her grandmother’s house to look after her. Her grandmother and grandmother’s journal are the ones who tell her about Holodomor, an unimaginable tragedy and man-made famine that happened in the 1930s in Ukraine.

Katya’s storyline was heart-wrenching at times, especially her losing family members and seeing how her loved home and countryside turn into crumbles with people being killed, deported or starved to death. Reading these chapters made me cry so much, especially since similar things are happening right now in Ukraine. I admired Katya’s strength and ability to fight for what is right. She never lost her spirit no matter how much she lost.

I really loved that this book explored Ukraine’s traditions in the 2004 timeline. Even though they all lived in the USA, the family still had very strong ties to the Ukrainian language, culture and traditions. Also, I always love to read about nalysnyky, varenyky and borscht as it takes me straight back to my childhood.

I didn’t know much about Holodomor before this book, although I do know a lot about deportations that happened to Gulags in Siberia before and during WW2 from family accounts. So for me, I had a big learning experience whilst reading this book too.  I am glad I learned about Holodomor and it definitely sparked my interest to read more, to know what happened and how many people were actually affected. This book is an amazing way of increasing awareness of this in the Western world, where people might not realise what truly happened across Eastern Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.

Overall: This story is a must-read, especially with what is happening now. Also, it is an important read for learning about Holodomor, especially if you like me didn’t know much about it before. It is so beautifully written it didn’t feel like its author's debut book at all.

Can’t recommend this book enough! 

This review was first published on NetGalley and can be found on:

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/252312/review/959200

About the Author: 

Erin Litteken is a debut novelist with a degree in history and a passion for research. At a young age, she was enthralled by stories of her family’s harrowing experiences in Ukraine before, during and after World War II. She lives in Illinois, USA with her husband and children.

http://www.erinlitteken.com/

Baek SeHee - I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

  

Baek SeHee - I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

5 ⭐

Genre: Biography, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Mental Health, Self-Care, Health, Mind and Body, Korean Literature

Translated by: Anton Hur 

Original Title: 죽고 싶지만 떡볶이는 먹고 싶어

Original Language: Korean 

Pages: 208

Format: eARC on NetGalley 

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK)

Date Published: 23rd June 2022

Huge Thank You to Bloomsbury UK and NetGalley UK for a copy of eARC to read and review! 

Book Blurb: 

Baek Se-Hee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her - what to call it? - depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgemental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends; adept at performing the calmness, even ease, her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, and overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can't be normal.

But if she's so hopeless, why can she always summon a yen for her favourite street food, the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like?

Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a 12-week period, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions and harmful behaviours that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness.

My Review: 

I really loved this book!  It is the first self-help book that I loved, actually enjoyed reading, and didn’t DNF’ed.

Firstly, it’s part memoir, featuring the author’s therapy sessions, where she is trying to find out why she is how she is, depressed, unhappy, with low self-esteem and always puts herself down. Secondly, it’s a part self-help book, where the author explains her mental health struggles without sugar-coating or glamorising it, whilst providing some explanation on different conditions and how it is possible to tackle them. The author also talks about how she is slowly overcoming her struggles, step by step and not always in a linear fashion, taking a few steps forward but in reality stumbling some ten steps backwards.

I love the honesty, the raw truth of mental health problems and how the author talks about her struggles, how she is not afraid to talk about her feelings too. I really liked how the book was so easy to read and felt really personal, like, I felt I was the one in the therapy room having the conversation with the therapist. I devoured this book in a few hours and would love to go back read it again and annotate, and add my thoughts (hopefully can do that once I get a physical copy when it's out). It was also so relatable, as most of the author’s struggles are so universal and some of us might face more than one in our everyday life.

This book is different but in such a good way, it stands out, as it's not your traditional ‘how to take care of your mental health’,  full of checklists and tips book. This book has a unique voice and true story, which makes it very raw and real, whilst teaching quite a lot about mental health from the perspective of our everyday life.

Overall:  I really think we need more books like this on mental health, as for me how the author bravely shared her feelings and thoughts on mental health conditions, made me think that more conversations like this need to happen in our communities and society to get over the stigma surrounding this subject. I can’t wait until it’s released, so I can buy a physical copy, re-read it and annotate it, and have it on my bookshelf to help me when I face hard moments in my life. It is translated so well, as writing just flows. It’s also so easy to understand, and there is some extra information provided, explaining Korean cultural nuances that the reader might not be familiar with.

Honestly, a book that is really worth a place on your bookshelf. 

This review was first published on NetGalley and can be found on:

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/252006/review/959200 

About the Author: 

Born in 1990, Baek SeHee studied creative writing at university before working for five years at a publishing house. For ten years, she received psychiatric treatment for dysthymia (persistent mild depression), which became the subject of her essays, and then I Want to Die, but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, books one and two. Her favourite food is tteokbokki, and she lives with her rescue dog Jaram.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/author/baek-sehee/

Deesha Philyaw - The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

Deesha Philyaw - The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

4⭐

Genre: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Feminism, Race, Religion

Pages: 179

Format:  eARC on NetGalley 

Publisher: Pushkin Press

Published: 5th May 2022 (UK)

 

Big thank you to Pushkin Press for having me on the blog tour and NetGalley / Pushkin Press for the eARC.

 Book Blurb: 

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions. With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.

My Review: 

What a book! Perfect for when you want to take a break from your usual reads and definitely perfect to help you get out of a reading slump.

The book features nine short stories that follow different characters, although the centre stage is given to black women and girls in Southern America. All these Church Ladies, spanning over four generations, are all trying to figure out their place in the world, their desires, their passion and their needs, whilst also having a strong belief in God and his teachings.

I loved that the author explored the lives of different women, especially their inner thoughts, reasoning and passions, but also didn’t shy to show their outer characters, how vulnerable, strong, distinct, loving, caring and colourful all those women are. These stories also look at how these ladies react to pressures, standards and rules set by society and the church, and how all of that changed their lives in ways they might not even imagine.

It was such an easy and refreshing read.  I managed to devour this book in a few hours. Although, it is a book that I would love to go back and reread the separate stories, whilst giving more time to concentrate and get to know each of the heroines better in their respective stories. It is a book that is worth a place on your shelf and that you will come back to read over and over again, as each story has so much to give.

I also loved the writing style, words in this book just flows and there are no wasted words and no long-winded descriptions that would take you off the topic, everything is said for a reason and everything that has been said in these stories matter, either to the character or their story.

My favourite stories are ‘The Peach Cobbler’, ‘Dear Sister’ and ‘Instructions for Married Christian Husbands’, as they are all so powerful but at the same time made me have a rollercoaster of emotions, including laughs, tears and heartaches.

Overall: One of the best short story books I have ever read. Definitely worth reading and having on your shelf. I know that I will be re-reading it soon, especially to have a break from longer books that I am reading to give me that energy and get me out of the reading slump. 

This review was firstly published on NetGalley:  

                                      https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/239051/review/959200

About the Author: 

Deesha Philyaw is the co-author of Co-Parenting 101: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Two Households After Divorce, written in collaboration with her ex-husband. Her work has been listed as Notable in The Best American Essays series, and her writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Brevity, dead housekeeping, Apogee Journal, Catapult, Cheat River Review, TueNight, ESPN’s The Undefeated and The Baltimore Review; Essence, Ebony, and Bitch magazines; and various anthologies. Deesha is a Fellow at the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction and a past Pushcart Prize nominee for essay writing in Full Grown People.

https://www.deeshaphilyaw.com/